dbmcclellan.com
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Clean your bike! I did….
Spring is in the air. Finally. If you are a cyclist there is a very large gap between the start of Winter when you quit riding and the beginning of Spring when you begin riding again.
It’s about two months early for Spring to show its colors out here….and in spite of the calendar, the grass is getting green, trees are budding, and folks are spending time outside. Pretty soon when it warms a bit more there will be clean cars, gardening services rushing from yard to yard, and outdoor fitness buffs will grudgingly show off their lumpy acquisitions of weight gain while they trudge along to some unknown song playing on their music player.
And if you’re me, your bicycle just got a bath. I haven’t been riding lately but noticed a layer of dust had settled on the paint, also saw I had not scrubbed the goo-cumulation from the last ride back in October, and could NOT tell by looking at the dark cluster of grease toward the back of the bike there were gears back there waiting to power the bike on down the road! So I gave CashFlow a bath.
Up she went onto the bike stand and my attention turned to the rear wheel. The cassette was detached and summarily reduced to the parts of its sum with spacers, gears, and the end cap were drowned inside a half coffee can full of Simple Green. The de-greasing had begun.
The bike then received a full wipe-down with a damp cloth. Chunks of road tar were addressed with a toothbrush dripping with more Simple Green and lot of TLC. Another wiping with the cloth and CashFlow was looking like her old self!
Now the wheels. I think you can clean just about anything if you take the time and apply yourself to the task at hand. Greasy spokes and road grime had given the bike an old beat-down look to it and the goal for today’s bath was to remove that layer of ugly and replace it with the look I am accustomed to….this was a Beast-to-Beauty transition, and it would make me a happy man to do the work. I used the toothbrush soaked in Simple Green to remove the layer of grease on each cog and spacer. Only when they looked all bright and shiny would I move on to the next one. And I made a promise this would not happen again! We’ll see how that goes.
After re-assembling the cassette with those shiny new looking cogs, the rear wheel looked great. Of course I cleaned up the front wheel and when they were both put back on the bike, CashFlow looked great. I am so proud of her!
CashFlow is clean now, and with Spring nearly here, I better figure out how to get my newly acquired weight into some cycling shorts and start working it off so CashFlow can be proud of me too.
I still need to clean the chain, but I’ll do that before my first ride….which will happen soon!
dbmcclellan.com 
I love the stories of “common tasks” made interesting by the inclusion of little details and the exploration of the mindset and motivation. Things here warmed up to 40F weekend before last and I rushed to get the bike outside for a thorough cleaning. It really is that season. It’s amazing how much better the bike rides, and how much I ride the bike better when it is spruced up.
Amen to Simple Green. I’ve tried a few other products, but nothing comes close for the price. Let me offer two tips – one my own and one that I’ve read over and over but only just tried.
Tip #1 – Zoomspout Oiler. I happened upon this one myself. Turbine Oil in a fantastic dispensing bottle. The oil is nice. I have no idea if it specs out as wonderfully as Dri-Slide or Finish Line Dry or whatever. But it’s the bottle that absolutely rocks. The tip has a built-in teeny little no-leak retractable and flexible hose that measures 7 inches long. So you can place a precisely measure drop or two in all those hard to reach but strategically important places on your front and rear derailleurs – without any excess mess. Some other oils might be “better” but not if you can’t actually get them on some hard to get to spot on your rear derailleur. I was actually able to lube every pivot point without having to pull the wheel or take the bike out of the stand, etc. Google it. Buy it.
Tip #2 – This one I’ve long heard and ignored, until this last cleaning. Cut the top off an old water bottle, put a couple of inches of cleaning solvent (Simple Green) and a 1″ stiff natural bristle brush in there and use that for your cleaning. Way more effective than a spray bottle, and handy. I started by misting the whole bike with water. Then quickly hit all the messy bits generously with Simple Green, and then go back around and spend time on the ones that need it. Wide mouth bottles (like those made by Elite) work best. I had a few extras that I got from BMC when they were at the Tour of Utah a year ago. Anyway – this really works. And for next to no money.
Speaking of bike cleaning tips, I once read this one on an online “ask a pro” feature. I loosely paraphrase, but it went something like this:
Q: You must ride a lot of miles in all kinds of conditions, what’s your number one tip to keeping your bike clean and lubed?
A: What works best for me is this. Immediately after a long ride in exceptionally sloppy conditions I lean the bike against the team bus while I grab a hot shower and dinner. Maybe a beer or two. When I check later the bike is spotless, the bars are re-wrapped, and everything is tuned and lubed. This works every time for me.
Ooops – re Tip #2 – put the cut-down bottle w/ solvent and brush in the seattube bottle cage
Good stuff there Michael, thank you for the input! Sent from my Windows Phone
Towards the end of my bicycle days I liked to boil my freewheel and chain in paraffin wax. After a bit of initial mess, I was rewarded with a very quiet ride and a glossy clean rear wheel. It didn’t accumulate junk like oil either.
For my motorcycle chains, I use Tri-Flow. It’s a light lube that cleans up easily and supposedly has amazing sheer strength. I’ve gotten over 30,000 miles out of my chains. Typical mileage is maybe 10,000, so I believe their claims. It’s great stuff for cable controls as well. Osh sells 12oz spray cans for about $10.
In the end, it’s not so important what you lube with, it’s *that* you lube it.